


Tremble

by Askeebe



Series: Never Let Me Go [8]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Gen, Panic Attacks, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 20:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4536405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askeebe/pseuds/Askeebe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a mission goes wrong and Shepard is trapped, Thane has to find a way to save her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tremble

"I hate spiders," Shepard declared as she swapped the heat sink on her Locust.

"Those aren't technically spiders," Thane corrected as he did the same. Beside him, Jacob was studying the seismic returns on his omni-tool, attempting to map out the arachnid-like creatures' cave.

"Close enough to give me the heebie jeebies," she said. "Found the beacon yet, Jacob?"

"These tunnels are pinging the signal all around," he said with a frown as he turned around. "I think it's that way and about thirty feet below us. Looks like the tunnel branches up ahead."

"Lovely," Shepard sighed. "Means the spiders can come at us from behind, too. Why couldn't they have dragged off the power supply? Or the crates filled with useless supplies? But no. They had to drag off the data recorder that has the last two years of observations that Cerberus was making. I should just tell the Illusive Man to go wait another two years for his data," she muttered as she stalked off into the gloomy tunnel. Thane was on her left as usual. Jacob followed a couple meters behind, still studying his omni tool map.

"Careful, Commander," he said. "This section of tunnel..."

His warning was lost as the tunnel floor collapsed under Shepard's heavy stride. She shrieked in fear as she disappeared into darkness.

"Siha!" Thane shouted as he leaned precariously over the edge of the hole.

"Shit!" Jacob yelled as he approached the edge.

"How deep?" Thane asked as he flashed his light into the gloom, but the swirling dust obscured any sign of her.

"Hard to tell. Twenty, twenty five feet."

"Stay here," Thane ordered as he prepared to descend.

"Wait!" Jacob tried to stop him, but Thane didn't listen. He turned and dropped, grabbing the lip of the hole and feeling around with his feet for anything, but there was no solid footing. He whistled sharply, hearing the echoes bounce back. It sounded like this was a small cavern. Holding on with one hand, he shined his light below. The dust had cleared up enough that he could spot the rocky floor, but there was no sign of Shepard's white armor. "I'm going down," Thane told the Cerberus operative. "Go back to the shuttle and get some rope." He didn't wait to hear Jacob's reply before he let go and landed carefully. The precariously balanced rubble shifted and groaned ominously underneath him. "Shepard!" The beam of his flashlight darted around the cavern as he searched frantically for his siha.

He jumped to the solid floor and again looked around with his flashlight. That little frisson in his spine was growing, no matter how much he was denying his fear. "Shepard!" he called again. There was a mound of rock underneath the hole where she fell, and he carefully worked his way around it.

"Siha!" His heart leapt into his throat as he saw the brilliant white flash of her armor, now coated with dust and grime. She was motionless and covered by a small mountain of rubble. His hands were trembling as he shifted some of the smaller rocks. His hands never trembled. Thank the gods she had been wearing full armor and helmet on this mission.

"Did you find her?" Jacob's voice was tense over the comm, hoping to hear that everything was alright.

Thane didn't bother to answer. He couldn't bear to answer. Not until he knew if she was still alive or not.  _Not here. Not now_ , he pleaded with Kalahira.  _She's your sister's siha! She cannot die now before her mission is complete._

Her helmet came into view. Unfortunately, so did a massive boulder. It was resting partially on her chest and partially on some of the rubble and scree around her. He knelt and gave an experimental tug on her arm, but she was pinned firmly in place. "Shepard?" he asked again. The worry in his voice could no longer be hidden or disguised as anything but the most dreadful fear that was growing every second she didn't respond.

Reaching out, he unlocked her helmet and rotated it off.  _She's alive!_ That fact hit him so hard that he slumped back on his heels. Then he took in her expression. Her eyes were tightly closed, but it wasn't to protect against dust or because she was unconscious. Her mouth was drawn into a thin, straight line that bespoke both pain and fear. Her nostrils flared wide as she took fast, shallow breaths. "Siha, talk to me," he urged.

"Can't...breathe," she panted.

He took another look at the juncture between the boulder and her armor. It was heavy armor, which was probably the only reason she was still alive. The chest piece was showing surface cracking, but its structural integrity was still sound. However, the boulder was compressing the armor into her chest and limiting her ability to breathe.

Very carefully, he brushed away more rubble to get an idea of the boulder's size. He recalled Jacob's pull field and thought that together they could lift the boulder from the Commander. He radioed the operative. "I've found her. You need to get down here immediately."

"Crap, Thane, I just got to the shuttle. Give me five minutes," Jacob huffed over the comm.

"Thane?" Shepard's voice was reedy and trembling. There was an unaccustomed note of panic in it.

"I'm here, siha." He stroked her cheek, noting that she still had her eyes tightly shut.

"...breathe...scared..."

It took him three seconds to make the connection, and he cursed himself for taking so long to realize the problem. Dr. Chakwas had warned him about her panic attacks related to her death over two years ago. The problem was that for her, it had only been a few months, and the trauma was still fresh. She had died via suffocation when the air in her suit ran out. Not a pleasant death, as he had frequent cause to contemplate.

"Shhh, siha. You can breathe. You simply must remain calm..." He was interrupted by a snort followed by a panicked series of gulps.

"Thane!" He saw with alarm that biotic energy was beginning to coruscate along her armor. It was unfocused, a sign of her impending panic attack. If she let it loose in an unfocused burst, she could shift the rubble, causing the boulder to crush her completely.

He grabbed her face and turned her toward him. "Shepard, look at me. Open your eyes!" he commanded. Her eyes flew open, a thin blue ring surrounding pupils blown wide with fright. "Control yourself," he snapped out in as harsh a tone as he could voice.

"Can't breathe," she moaned again, clearly losing the battle.

He pinched her jaw hard enough to break the skin. "You can, and you will," he said low and angry. "Breathe in for two, breathe out for two. Slow and shallow. I do it every day with Keprel's stealing my lung capacity. You have full use of yours, Shepard. You have no excuse. Now breathe!" He kept his eyes locked on hers, not showing a glimmer of pity. Into his comm, he said, "Jacob...run."

It was working, for now. She stared at him, and her breathing slowed down. The biotic energy crackled away into nothingness as they remained locked in each other's gaze.

Thane heard a scurrying in the darkness. Without looking away from Shepard, he lifted his Tempest and fired into the darkness, hearing a shrill shriek and then nothing. Shepard had heard it, too, and her breathing was speeding up. She knew as well as he did that she was trapped, and there were an unknown number of arachnid creatures hovering in the nearby darkness. "They will not get past me, siha," he promised her. "Keep breathing."

"Th...Th..." Her biotics sparked back to life, strongly enough to illuminate the cave for a second although fortunately, she did not apply any force to it. Thane glanced around and memorized the layout in the sharp electric blue light. Only one tunnel. That was good. He had several more heat sinks in his pockets. They would survive until Jacob returned as long as she could keep from succumbing to a panic attack.

"Control yourself," he ordered again. "The body does what the mind tells it. Slow the heart so the body needs less air. Think of your heart, siha. Feel it beat. Now order it to slow. As it slows, so will your breathing." He brushed his thumb over her cheek, hoping to calm her. He knew little of panic attacks. She had not had one in his presence, although he understood from the doctor that she had been subject to them in the past.

Thane's ears picked up the sound of more skittering from the tunnel. He had to look away to ensure his shots hit the targets, and when he looked back, he saw that the panic was rising in her again. She needed him to portray calm, so he let no sign of his worry reach his expression. "I told you I would not let them through. Focus on your heart, siha." He fired again, then looked back. He could see she was losing the battle. Her eyes were shut tight and her shoulder was twitching where she was struggling to break free of her confinement. Biotic energy once again licked across his scales.

Suddenly one of the arachnid creatures fell from the hole in the cavern roof and rolled across her face. Thane saw in an instant that it was already dead and realized Jacob was close, but Shepard was too close to panicking and this pushed her over the edge. She tried to scream, but with little air in her lungs, it came out as a wheezing gasp.

Thane cast about for options, but with so little of her body exposed, there wasn't much he could do. He couldn't risk trying to knock her unconscious, but Mordin's recent talk came to mind. The doctor had offered some well-intentioned, if uncomfortable, advice on drell-human liaisons, including the warning that drell saliva could induce hallucinations in humans. The doctor hadn't said how quickly the effects took hold, but Thane thought the shock of a kiss might cut through her panic.

He leaned over her and pressed his lips to hers. Mindful of her need to breathe, he didn't kiss so hard as to cut off her limited air supply. Nudging her lips open with his, he slipped his tongue inside her mouth. Even in the midst of the chaos and fear, he noted the surprisingly sweet caramel taste of her mouth. The electric blue flickering of her energy field died abruptly as a surprised inquisitive sound came from her throat. Softly, he breathed into her mouth, sharing life-sustaining air.

He could feel her teetering on the edge of panic. Her breathing was still fast and shallow, and there was an inordinate amount of tension in her lips. He suspected if they tried this again under more favorable circumstances, her lips would be invitingly soft. Again his tongue caressed hers, and he hoped the venom in his saliva would work quickly. He brushed his thumb along her cheek again and silently willed her to focus on him alone. He kissed her carefully, but skillfully, mapping the texture of her lips and varying the pressure he applied, seeking to find the place where she would forget about everything except him.

Finally, he felt the minute shifts in her lips that spoke of fractional relaxation. Her mouth softened under his and her tongue flicked out to meet his own. For a second, it reminded him of his first stolen kiss in the Guild, the tentative pressing of lips, the mutual agreement of pleasure. This woman beneath him was no adolescent, though. She was a warrior angel, and Thane knew he was lost to her.

These past weeks they had grown to know each other well. She frequently took him on missions now, and she spent most evenings with him in Life Support discussing everything from politics to gun mods to their own personal histories. She knew more about him than anyone since Irikah, and yet she still kept coming to talk to him. She was the reason he had awakened from his battle sleep, but he hadn't admitted it to her. He knew he had no future to offer her and so had tried to keep his feelings to himself, but now he was kissing her with an intensity that surprised even him.

The kiss deepened, and there was no more disguising the passion he felt for her. However, now that his secret was out, he felt a new torture in his heart. Was the softening in her lips because she felt the same for him, or was it simply a human reaction to his venom? How would he face her after this? He knew little of humans, and less of human military, but he did know from discussions with Garrus that the human Alliance took a dim view on sexual relations between crew members, unlike the turian Hierarchy. Thus he had resigned himself to be nothing more than her friend and protector, seeking and expecting nothing more in return. Now, though, he could not deny to her his feelings. Deep in an unexplored part of his mind, he secretly hoped and wished that she would return those feelings.

"Commander, I'm...Thane?" Jacob's breathless declaration ended in a very surprised question as he rounded the rubble pile.

Thane ignored Jacob's obvious curiosity. "Quickly, lift the boulder," he ordered the operative. Jacob spotted the problem immediately and activated his biotics to lower the mass of the boulder threatening to crush their Commander. As soon as Jacob nodded, Thane carefully brought up his own biotics and slowly pushed the now-lighter boulder off of Shepard. It rolled down the rubble pile and smashed into the wall, shattering into two smaller jagged halves. Jacob immediately threw up a barrier to protect the three of them from the pile of scree that shifted and rolled down around Thane and Shepard.

As soon as the weight lifted from her chest, Shepard took a deep, shuddering gasp of air and rolled down to the cavern floor. She landed on her hands and knees and put her head to the floor, gasping deeply.

Thane knelt at her side and massaged the back of her neck. "You're fine, siha." He could feel the trembling in her spine, even if the rest of her body was hidden by her armor.

"Commander? You okay?" Jacob was casting curious glances between the two of them.

Shepard held up one hand without looking up. "Not. One. Word." The two men stared at each other trying to figure out what to do. Finally Jacob shrugged as if to say 'whatever.' Shepard pulled herself to her feet and walked to the tunnel entrance.

Thane had been aware of a faint susurration of many-jointed legs lingering in the darkness, but the bodies of their dead hive mates appeared to be holding them back for now. Without warning, Shepard's biotics lit up the entire cavern as she threw warp after killing warp into the tunnel. Even from this distance, Thane could feel the gravity-bending effects pull at him. She was putting far more energy into her warps than he'd ever seen her manage before.

Without looking back, she pulled out her Locust and checked it for damage. "Come on. We've got a data beacon to find." Thane and Jacob fell in behind her.

Thane walked out of the cavern on his Commander's left, but he knew he would continue to live in that cavern for many more hours until he could resolve this...whatever it was...with his human siha.

**Author's Note:**

> Could also be in a series called Variations on a First Kiss. Playing around with characters at the beginning of a relationship. Doesn't quite match up with my main story, but it uses the same characters and is a 'might have been.'


End file.
